The presidential debate between Vice President Harris and former President Trump takes place Tuesday evening, with immigration at the forefront of the national discourse. The issue significantly impacts the economy and jobs, national security, public safety, government spending, and more – and numerous polls confirm it as a top concern for voters. The ABC News moderators are certain to ask about some aspect of the issue during the debate.
The topic of immigration is extraordinarily broad, making it challenging to speculate what will be asked. Prior to the first debate, between former President Trump and President Biden, the Center's subject matter experts offered several questions that should be asked. Below are questions for Tuesday’s debate, some of them the same as last time, some new, given the change in the lineup. Since Vice President Harris’s stated views on immigration are in flux, while former President Trump’s are not, many of these questions are naturally directed to her.
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For both candidates…
In March 2024 nearly 1 in 6 U.S. residents was foreign-born, the highest percentage in American history. In your opinion, is it possible to have too much immigration, and, if so, what is the maximum number of immigrants that the U.S. should take each year?
The Biden-Harris administration has paroled in over 2 million inadmissible and removable aliens to the United States since 2021. Parole, however, is not a lawful immigration status and only provides temporary permission to enter the country. How does each candidate plan to enforce the departure of these parolees once their parole expires?
Do you plan to create a dedicated pathway for Palestinian refugees from Gaza to come to the United States once the Israel-Hamas war is over?
What is your plan to nudge American employers to hire the millions of American workers who have dropped out of the labor market and to wean them off reliance on immigrant workers?
Multiple bipartisan commissions have argued that the single most important policy to limit illegal immigration is to turn off the magnet of jobs, and the single most important way to do that is to mandate universal use of what is now called E-Verify, an online system that enables employers to make sure they hire only legal workers. Do you support making use of E-Verify mandatory for all new hires? If not, why not?
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For Vice President Harris…
In the Senate you introduced or co-sponsored bills to prohibit further border wall construction, reduce detention space available to ICE, and end state and local cooperation with federal immigration authorities. You also have said in the past that you believe crossing the border should no longer be a criminal offense. Unnamed campaign aides have suggested you may have changed some of these views. Can you tell us tonight whether you still support those positions? Please be specific. And if you have indeed changed your prior positions, please explain why.
I’d like to ask now about crime. The crime rate of immigrants is disputed, but what isn’t disputed is the fact that many individuals who illegally crossed the border and were then released into the country based on the policies of your administration went on to commit terrible crimes, such as the murder of nursing student Laken Riley in Georgia and many others. These people would not have been able to commit these crimes had they not been released by your administration. Don’t you share responsibility for those crimes? If not, why not?
As a senator in 2019, you asked a nominee for an administration position whether he was aware of “perceptions” that ICE agents are like the Ku Klux Klan, and what he would do to dispel such perceptions. Today, do you hold that perception, or do you regret surfacing the KKK allegation in so public a setting?
During the Haitian migrant encampment crisis in Del Rio, Texas, in 2021, when Border Patrol agents were falsely accused of “whipping” migrants, you said “It also invoked images of some of the worst moments of our history, where that kind of behavior has been used against the Indigenous people of our country, it has been used against African Americans during times of slavery.” Have you apologized to the Border Patrol agents who were falsely accused?
Putting aside claims that you were your administration’s “border czar”, you acknowledge that you were tasked by President Biden with addressing the “root causes” of migration, also often known as “push factors”. But your administration has done little to address the “pull factors” that encourage migrants to enter the United States illegally. Do you plan to continue this approach, which has resulted in the most severe border crisis in our nation’s history, or will you pledge to also work to eliminate U.S. policies that serve as pull factors for illegal immigration?
Will you commit as president to deporting foreign students who advocated for mass murder by Hamas during the anti-Israel demonstrations on college campuses?
In 2019, you joined a number of your colleagues to introduce the “Guaranteed Refugee Admissions Ceiling Enhancement (GRACE) Act”, that would have required the resettlement of a minimum of 95,000 refugees in a given fiscal year. Will you push Congress to pass similar legislation if elected?
The immigration section of the Biden-Harris 2020 campaign website complained that the Trump administration “still doesn’t have a coherent plan for the protection and processing of children and families”. On June 10, however, the Washington Post estimated that under the Biden-Harris administration, the federal government has lost contact with about 135,000 unaccompanied children who entered illegally and were transferred to HHS for placement with sponsors in the United States – and a recent report from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General suggested the number may be much higher. Would you say that your administration has a “coherent plan for the protection and processing of children”, and if so could you describe that plan?
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For President Trump…
Elon Musk, a prominent supporter of your candidacy, has tweeted that “I am very much PRO increasing legal immigration significantly”. Do you share that view? Do you favor increasing legal immigration from the current level of about 1 million per year? If so, what level of legal immigration would you support?
From March 2022 to March 2024, the foreign-born population grew by more than 5 million, the largest two-year growth in American history, taking the immigrant share of the U.S. population to the highest level in history, higher even than during the Ellis Island era. Slightly more than half of this increase was due to illegal immigration. You’ve said you want a high level of immigration, so long as it’s legal. Would you support continuing this unprecedented increase in immigration if only it had all been legal?
In 2016, you promised to deport 1 million illegal aliens per year, and yet over the course of four years, your administration failed to deport even 1 million. Now, you again promise a massive deportation program if you are elected. How do you intend to carry that plan out? And how will you define success after four years? Does success mean reducing the illegal immigrant population by half? By three-quarters? Please be specific.
You said recently that every foreign student, regardless of their major, even those receiving associate’s degrees from junior colleges, should automatically be given permanent residence in the United States, leading to citizenship. Your campaign later partially walked that back, but could you clarify for us, here, tonight, what you meant?
In 2018, during your presidency, you were criticized for saying Middle Easterners and possibly terrorists were in and around the migrant caravans. Knowing what we’ve learned lately about actual suspected terrorists crossing our borders, can you share with us what you actually knew at the time from intelligence briefings and what would you like to say to those critics today?
Over the years, your various properties have hired many foreigners on work visas. Do you believe there are jobs Americans won’t do, even if wages and benefits were increased?